Princess Diana's resting place to receive extensive renovation
Extensive renovation work is being planned for the island where Princess Diana was laid to rest, it has been revealed. Diana's brother Charles Spencer and his wife Karen will oversee the work, estimated to be completed by August 2017 – in time to mark the 20th anniversary of the Princess of Wales' death.
The late mother of Princes William and Harry was laid to rest on an island at the centre of the Althorp Estate, a stately home set within a 13,000-acre estate in Northampton owned by the Spencer family.
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Princess Diana's final resting place will undergo renovation
The island lies at the centre of the estate's Round Oval Lake, and features a number of trees and vegetation along with a monument commemorating the late Princess. Following Diana's death in August 1997, an oak tree was planted to mark each year of her life, along with hundreds of white water lilies and roses.
There is also a temple for visitors to pay their respects, which features Diana's name engraved on the top.
It was previously suggested that the island had become overgrown and unkempt, so the renovation work will be welcome news to those close to the late Princess.
Diana was laid to rest at the Spencer family's Althorp Estate
The news coincided with an interview in which Prince Harry admitted that he doesn't have many childhood memories of his mother. Harry was just 12-years-old when his mum was killed in a car crash in Paris, and has now revealed that his first-hand recollections of her are fading.
Speaking to People magazine, the Prince explained: "I don't have that many memories of my childhood with my mum. I don't say, 'Right, I'm going to get involved in that because that's what my mum would want me to do', although inevitably once I'm doing it I think, 'Do you know what? She'd probably love this.'"
He then poignantly added: "All I want to do is make my mother incredibly proud. That's all I've ever wanted to do.
"When she died, there was a gaping hole, not just for us but also for a huge amount of people across the world. If I can try and fill a very small part of that, then job done. I will have to, in a good way, spend the rest of my life trying to fill that void as much as possible. And so will William."
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